Monitor: Hillary Clinton interview

Views on why First Lady Hillary Clinton decided to speak out on the psychological reasons for her husband Bill's philandering

Research,Metin Alsanjak
Saturday 07 August 1999 00:02 BST
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Chico Enterprise- Record

US

THE LATE comedian Flip Wilson used to get laughs on his 1970s TV show by explaining away his mischief with the line "the devil made me do it". Now comes Hillary Clinton, the First Lady of the United States, with an even more uproarious line in explaining her husband's sexual escapades.

What made Clinton do it, says his betrayed wife, was an emotional tug- of-war the President had at an early age between his mother and grandmother. Mrs Clinton, not surprisingly, clearly gave her interview to a magazine that she considers sympathetic to her, seeing as how it is owned in part by a corporation whose head is raising money for her in her effort to be a US senator from New York.

Was this interview, then, politically calculated? Of course, if the consensus comes up negative, Mrs Clinton can just excuse it all away by explaining that a childhood episode involving her own grandmother made her do it.

u

La Stampa

Italy

DETAILS OF Hillary Rodham Clinton's private life, given her powerful status and senatorial ambitions, have become subject to public scrutiny. After her interview to Talk magazine, we are wondering why she did it: typically female appeasement, conjugal pragmatism, or an attempt to get a sympathy vote from both men and women? A year ago, the controversial author Elizabeth Wurtzel described Mrs Clinton as a terrible example of the "masochist woman," eagerly sacrificing herself in order to favour her husband's success.

Now Mrs Clinton tries to endear herself to millions of potential voters through the glossy pages of a new magazine. Will this strategy work?

u

Albany Times Union

US

JOURNALISM AND politics have intersected at the lowest road yet. Even if the voters expect Mrs Clinton to talk about the worse aspects of her marriage, she could have answered the offending questions in brassy New York style. She could have said: "None of your damn business."

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